Thousand Sons
The Thousand Sons are a Loyalist First Founding Space Marine Legion bound up with occult lore, mysticism and the otherworldly powers of the psyker. It was these esoteric arts of war that made them one of the most formidable Legions, but at times, also one of the most distrusted. Their copper-skinned Primarch, Magnus the Red, was the first of the primarchs to recognise the existence and the threat the Ruinous Powers posed to Mankind, and because of this the Thousand Sons became the first legion to be targeted for destruction by the forces of Chaos. Though it cost them dear, those that survived the Space Wolves' slaughter during the Burning of Prospero were pivotal in bringing the Dornian Heresy to an end. As the most powerful battle-psykers in the Imperium they are feared and mistrusted, even by the people they selflessly defend against the encroaching darkness. Legion History Like all of their predecessors among the Legiones Astartes, the XVth Legion was first forged on Terra by the Emperor of Mankind and its original members were recruited from the Terran population. Their gene-seed was first derived from samples of the psychically-gifted DNA of their genetic father Magnus the Red and then implanted into the first Thousand Sons Astartes in the gene-laboratories of Luna during a brief resurgence of Warp Storms within the boundaries of the Sol System. This brief surge of Warp activity generated psychic convergences all across the globe, resulting in spontaneous outbreaks of psychotic violence. This unusual activity likely did not have any additional mutational effect on the Legion's gene-seed. However, upon learning of these ominous events years later after he was given command of the Legion following his discovery by the Emperor on the world of Prospero, Primarch Magnus considered these portents as boding ill for his Legion. The initial corps of Thousand Sons Legionaries, the Student-Aspirants, had been chosen from psychically-gifted individuals who had been citizens of the former Achaemenid Empire that had existed on Terra and had been ruled by the Emperor for nearly a standard century. Because they had been under Imperial rule for so long, the Achaemenids had not suffered as greatly as other regions of the planet during the Emperor's Unification Wars to reunite all the various techno-barbarian tribes and nation-states of the Earth under His rule. The Student-Aspirants of the XVth Legion had been chosen from among those Achaemenid families the Emperor Himself had determined showed potential and were suitable for the gene-seed implantation process. These young men were taken from the territory of the Achaemenid Empire to the Emperor's secret gene-laboratories beneath the Himalayan Mountains, where He first had begun His experiments in human enhancement and created the Primarchs, to begin the Student-Aspirants' transformation into Space Marines. One of these first Student-Aspirants was Ahzek Ahriman and his twin brother, Ohrmuzd Ahriman. Once it had been raised, the XV Legion was deployed by the Emperor to gain experience through the suppression of the few remaining pockets of techno-barbarian resistance on Terra to Imperial rule. Having proved themselves in this first campaign, the XVth Legion was formally named the Thousand Sons by the Emperor and given their own expeditionary fleet so that they might begin to make contributions to the Great Crusade the Emperor had unleashed to reunify all of humanity within the newborn Imperium of Man. The Crimson King During the great diaspora, when humanity colonised the galaxy, the world of Prospero was chosen by the mutants and psykers that settled it precisely because of its remoteness and lack of mineral resources. In their splendid isolation, these outcasts from the rest of humanity created Tizca, a shining city of light, learning and culture amidst the barren wasteland. Although they had been cut off for thousands of years, tales still abounded of the howling mobs that had persecuted their forefathers, and they lived in quiet dread that their haven would be invaded. Unsurprisingly, when the infant Magnus' incubation chamber fell to earth amongst the shining silver towers in Tizca's central plaza, the population was gripped with terror. Finally overcoming their trepidation, they found it to be not an orbital bombardment or the vanguard of an invasion force, but a battered, scorched and damaged wreck containing a badly injured child. Though he was near the point of death when they first found him, the boy displayed a tenacious will and remarkable constitution. Under the ministrations of the commune's healers he quickly returned to robust health, but nothing could be done to save the boy's right eye. An ugly welt of scar tissue covered the socket, but in a society where mutation and deformity were rife, this was little cause for comment. He was named Magnus, or, more usually and affectionately, Magnus the Red after his ruddy complexion and the colour of the unruly mane of hair that he doggedly refused to cut. Magnus quickly grew to vibrant maturity and threw himself wholeheartedly into learning. He was most often to be found poring over the ancient tomes in the city's extensive libraries and animatedly debating with wizened scholars many times his own age. Knowledge was his passion, and with the fiery certainty of youth he believed that no subject was beyond his mastery. It was the study of the hermetic arts of alchemy and sorcery that changed his life forever. Doing so awakened him to the true power of the Warp, an act which levelled the building in which he had been studying. As his psychic powers blossomed, he became aware of both the Gods of Chaos, and his father, the Emperor of all Mankind. Though separated by half a galaxy, the Emperor and Magnus recognised each other for what they were. With his insatiable thirst for knowledge, Magnus eagerly learned about every aspect of the young Imperium, of the Great Crusade, and the search for his brother primarchs. Through his expanded acuity, and the tutelage of his father, Magnus became the first of the primarchs to learn of the terrible threat posed by the Ruinous Powers. Even as the Emperor taught him these things, He swore Magnus to secrecy, explaining that the threat was so grave that even knowledge of their existence would be enough to seduce some to their worship. Magnus had seen to his cost the palpable link between sorcery and Chaos, but argued that the Ruinous Powers could easily use such ignorance to corrupt the unwary. Despite this, he was unable to persuade his father. The Emperor spoke of a grand plan that would one day see humanity strong enough to resist Chaos's wiles, but until then, He solemnly forbade Magnus from telling anyone outside his own legion, even his own brother primarchs, of what he had learned. The Great Crusade As Magnus and his new legion ventured across the stars, it gave them an opportunity to gain that which they craved the most: knowledge. Each world brought into compliance with the Emperor's will revealed to them the learning and insights of a new culture. As well as the countless human societies, the myriad xenos breeds were also a constant source of wonder. From the subtle Eldar to the brutal Orks, each new sample was characterised, dissected and catalogued. This expansion also brought with it fresh dangers. Even forewarned against the Ruinous Powers, the Thousand Sons still suffered losses. Every battle brother that fell hardened their hearts against the evil of Chaos, and turned Magnus' thoughts to the casualties sustained by the other legions who had no concept or defence against the threat they faced. Their travels across the galaxy brought them into contact with many of Magnus' brother primarchs. Some, in particular Horus of the Luna Wolves and Lorgar of the Word Bearers, became firm friends. Others, such as the Mortarion of the Death Guard and Leman Russ, the feral primarch of the Space Wolves, took an instant dislike to Magnus and everything he stood for. The uncouth Russ called him mutant, sorcerer, unclean and even a cyclops after the one-eyed giant of Terran legend. At every meeting, be it cordial or adversarial, Magnus respected the Emperor's demand to keep silent about the nature of Chaos, despite the crushing certainty that ignorance left his brothers vulnerable to the predations of the Ruinous Powers. Magnus bore his brothers' harsh words with good grace, in the certainty that once on the field of battle all enmity would be placed aside. This was tested most sorely on the fortress-world of Bartok, where a campaign by the Space Wolves to bring the planet into Imperial compliance had degenerated into a bloody stalemate. In order to bring the campaign to a rapid conclusion, the Emperor Himself had ordered the Thousand Sons to reinforce the assault. The headstrong Leman Russ detested the idea of being seen to need the help of another legion, especially one he had so publically denounced, but he grudgingly submitted to his father's decree. Even with the might of two legions, it soon became clear why Russ had struggled. The final and greatest city was protected by directed energy fields and ringed with trenches, strongpoints and bunker networks resulting in brutally effective interlocking fields of fire. The approaches had been turned into a killing ground worthy of those designed by Perturabo or Dorn. As Russ prepared to throw his forces into yet another headlong charge against the enemy guns, Magnus and his legion exposed the weak link in the Bartok defence. All across the battlezone, the Thousand Sons reached into weak, unguarded minds and urged them to turn their guns on their friends. Even as Russ' Wolves advanced, heavy weapon emplacements tracked away from them to fire upon each other. The doomed forlorn hope was transformed into a famous victory, and once inside the lines of defence, the city quickly fell. Perversely, the Space Wolves did not appreciate this intervention, again throwing accusations of sorcery and evil intent. Though Magnus well knew the difference between warp-tainted magicks and the pure psychic talents his legion deployed, Russ could not be reasoned with. Only a rapid departure from the warzone averted fratricidal bloodshed. Magnus hoped that never again putting his legion in a position to fight alongside the Space Wolves would allow his brother's anger to cool, but by then the damage had already been done. The Coming Storm Just before the Emperor was set to return to Terra, leaving Horus in supreme command of the Great Crusade, He called His primarchs together to the planet of Nikaea. There He sought to address the increasingly acrimonious disputes that had broken out over the nature of psychic ability. Mortarion, Dorn, Corax and of course Leman Russ led the charge, saying that there was no boundary between psychic abilities and the use of destructive sorceries. It was all a matter of degrees, with one inevitably leading to the other. The Emperor‟s decision to withhold knowledge about the nature of Chaos had not stopped the primarchs from sensing its dangers, and as Magnus had feared, some lashed out against psykers, the eternal scapegoats. Hamstrung by the Emperor's decree, Magnus realised that no words of his could pacify the growing mob. He desperately begged a private audience with his father, and in a move both practical and symbolic, proposed that, starting with himself, every member of the Thousand Sons be soul-bound to the Emperor. Just as soul-binding fortified Astropaths against the horrors of the Warp, the rite would purge and protect the legion from the temptations of sorcery, and be a palpable sign of their loyalty. The Emperor agreed to this elegant solution, and the act was performed that very night. When the primarchs and their attendants filed into the council chamber the next morning they saw Magnus standing proudly alongside his father, his one eye socket an empty wound. The process of soul-binding, of merging essences with the psychic might of the Emperor, had burned out his optic nerve and left the 'cyclops' blind, but Magnus was filled with a second sight that left him far from vulnerable. Though it pacified most, the judgement did nothing to assuage Leman Russ, who stormed from the chamber, and into the service of the Blood God. Before the legions left Nikaea, Magnus met with his brother primarch, Lorgar of the Word Bearers. He was a pure soul, genuinely happy for the great honour that he saw his friend had been given. Magnus had long held his tongue about the Ruinous Powers, but it had cost him his eye, and he feared that before long it would cost them all far more. For the first time, Magnus broke the vow to his father and warned Lorgar of the threat posed by Chaos. The dire news was received gladly, as it reinforced all that the Word Bearers believed. Their piety and dedication to spread the worship of the Emperor as a deity stood vindicated as vital to the continuation of the human race. The Thousand Sons returned from Terra irrevocably changed. Though the soul-binding had taken their sight, they were given a psychic awareness of their environment that was far superior. It had also given them a measure of inner strength – a touch of the Emperor's reflected aura, as it were - that they had not even known they had been missing. The most obvious outward sign of their change was shown in their helms, which they had re-forged on the journey back to Prospero into unnerving, eyeless faceplates. They still retained the ability to obtain detailed information on their surroundings from their suit's autosenses, something that became of particular importance in the presence of psychic blanks such as the Sisters of Silence. As well as eliminating the need for the vision-enhancing effects of the occulobe implant, the soul-binding also had the welcome effect of reducing the rate and severity of mutation within their bodies and gene-seed. They also brought back with them a member of the Legio Custodes. Though ostensibly sent as the Emperor's personal envoy to monitor the progress of the soul-binding, Magnus suspected that his father had learned of the confession to Lorgar, and the guard was a reminder that he was being watched closely. Just as the newly transformed legion prepared to return to the Great Crusade, Magnus received intelligence of the utmost importance: The Archenemy had made a move against Horus. While visiting the Warmaster, a Word Bearers chaplain named Erebus had recognised the malaise that Horus had contracted on Davin was in fact nothing less than possession by a powerful daemonic entity. Only through an epic act of heroism that required both spiritual salvation from Erebus, and the combined psychic might of the entire Thousand Sons Legion, could the warp-creature be cast out and Horus' life saved. In a terrible irony, before they could even recover from the exertions of saving one primarch from Chaos, another descended upon Prospero intent on planetary annihilation. The Dornian Heresy Without warning, drop pods and assault craft lit up the sky like comets, and the worst fears of the people of Prospero were realised. Distracted by the events of Davin, and, it is suspected, with their precognitive skills blunted by Khorne‟s power, the Space Wolf fleet devastated the planet‟s orbital defences. Before any kind of effective resistance could be mustered, the newly built cities were turned into funeral pyres, killing all those who had come from across the Imperium seeking protection. Though shielded from orbital bombardment behind powerful energy fields, grey figures were seen massing just outside Tizca for a grand offensive. Unthinkable as it was, Magnus sanctioned his legion to use lethal force against other Astartes. Before the Thousand Sons had always held back their true power for fear of alienating their allies, but in the face of extinction they threw caution to the wind. They lured their enemies into ambushes on the outskirts of Tizca, first disorienting them with psychic powers, and then cutting them down in lethal crossfires. Just as the battle seemed to be tipping in the Thousand Sons' favour, the power of Khorne tore through the Empyrean like a tidal wave, affecting every psyker on the planet. The Thousand Sons, protected as they were by the soul-binding, were left powerless and dazed. The civilian population was affected far more gravely. Those who survived boiled madly from their shelters, only to be torn apart by the bestial, inhuman creatures the Space Wolves had become. With his world turned to ash and its people murdered, Magnus strove to access his psychic powers, but to no avail. Under such physical and mental assault, it was all the Thousand Sons could do to stay alive. When Leman Russ inevitably came for Magnus he was unrecognisable: a blood-drunk beast steeped in the power of Khorne. Only through the Custodian‟s heroic self-sacrifice was Magnus able to escape with his life. With the disruption to the aetheric plane finally beginning to wane, Magnus was able to obscure his remaining brothers from view, and leave the necropolis that Tizca had become. Hearing of Dorn's betrayal at Istvaan, it became clear that the attack on Prospero was just the opening salvo in a much larger war. Even with their numbers so depleted, the Thousand Sons were determined to do what they could to save the Emperor. Following Russ' much larger fleet at a discreet distance, they used their mastery of the warp to delay the enemy and send them far off track. It was hoped that in this way they could buy time for the loyal legions to end the rebellion before they arrived. Their gambit to divert the Space Wolves into contact with their bitter rivals, the Dark Angels, sadly did not erupt in the hoped for bloodshed. They greeted each other as allies in Chaos, although it did at least mean that from then on they were keeping two Traitor Legions from the Emperor's throat. Their contribution did not come without a price, however. The continuous strain began to take its toll, and towards the end every day that went past left another brother as a powder-dry corpse inside his power armour. With the Space Wolves and Dark Angels just days from Terra, the Emperor was forced to break the stalemate and confront Dorn directly. Magnus felt the psychic battle going on aboard the Phalanx, but was powerless to intervene. Though the Dornian Heresy was ended that day, it left the Emperor wounded to the core, and Magnus felt every one of those agonies across the light-years. The Bloody Aftermath As the Traitor Legions scattered to the stars, the Thousand Sons arrived to do what they could. Along with the Iron Warriors, Magnus interned the Emperor's paralysed body within the life-sustaining mechanism of the Astronomicon. Meanwhile, the rest of the legion put their talents to use in cleansing the taint of the daemonic from the planet. Terra had been the site of many desecrations and summonations, and it took decades to ward all of the portals that had been created. The worst site of all was inside the old Imperial throne-room. When Dorn had found that the Emperor had escaped him there he had desecrated the nascent webway portal that had been under construction. An army of daemons had flooded out, and even after the Heresy it took an almighty effort to seal. Magnus threw himself wholeheartedly into finding a way to restore his father's vitality. It became an obsession, with effective command of his legion falling to Captain Ahriman of the First Great Company. One day Magnus emerged from the Astronomicon in high spirits, and, eschewing all offers of company, left Terra, saying only that the solution was “to gather together the Emperor‟s sons”. What was meant by this, he has never explained, not even to his own legion or to the High Lords of Terra. By this point most of the primarchs were either dead or turned to Chaos, and as the millennia pass, fewer and fewer remain alive. The Thousand Sons have never grown used to the unsettling nature of their primarch's frequent disappearances and unheralded returns. At first his quests were measured in months or years, and he found the time to lead them on the quest to purge the Space Wolves from their homeworld of Fenris. As time went on, Magnus vanished for decades at a time, his whereabouts obscured from even the most determined of seers. In Magnus' absence, Regent Ahzek Ahriman went to great lengths to see the Thousand Sons rebuilt. His callous and high-handed attitude towards the lives of allies, especially those of the Imperial Army, meant that even as their numbers rose, the regard in which they were held fell. This reputedly earned a furious rebuke from Magnus on his return, after which Ahriman was careful to show more respect for non-psychics, or at least to moderate his public comments. At the end of his life, Regent Ahriman was finally able to redeem himself. When the hexagrammatic wards used to seal the webway portal in the old Imperial palace began to decay and threatened to tear wide open once more, Ahriman was at the forefront of researching a way to permanently close the rift. His divinations showed that this could only be done from within, something which, as the pre-eminent expert, he insisted on doing personally. Despite all of this, there are still some who claim that it was a ploy; that he survived the process, and became the first human to walk the webway's paths and search out the secrets of the Eldar's infamous Black Library. Though such guile was certainly part of Ahriman's character, if this was the case he has never returned to the Imperium to speak of what he found there. Legion Organisation Though still nominally commanded by their primarch, Magnus' lengthy disappearances mean that in practice the legion is led by the Captain of the First Great Company as Regent. It is rare enough to find a candidate worthy of becoming an Astartes in a normal legion, but when they must also be strong and resilient psykers, the task becomes even more difficult. For this reason they have never been a large legion, although they have long ago exceeded their nominal thousand brothers. Their grand companies are small, and only Fulgrim's self-imposed limit of thirty grand companies has allowed the Thousand Sons to exceed their numbers. Though they intentionally cultivate a distant and mysterious persona, the Thousand Sons are forced by their low numbers to frequently work alongside more numerous organisations such as the Imperial Army. Ever since the damaging days of Regent Ahriman, Magnus has taken great pains to ensure that the Thousand Sons are perceived by their allies as an invaluable advantage in any battle. So important is this that Thousand Sons of any rank may be reprimanded and even demoted for giving their allies the impression they are being treated as disposable cannon fodder. In a legion of battle psykers, the captains of the grand companies are amongst the most potent and skilled, with powers far exceeding those of the chief librarians of any other Astartes. Commanding upwards of a hundred squads, each captain is charged with a specific task by the regent. This varies from guarding Holy Terra and combating incursions of the daemonic, to prosecuting the Long War against the Traitor Legions, in particular the berserkers of the Space Wolves. Realising that psychic strength is nothing without the fortitude of faith in the Emperor, the Thousand Sons were the first legion to import Lorgar's concept of chaplains. These individuals play a vital role in guiding the moral and spiritual growth of the legion. Initiates who, as Lorgar put it, display a particularly intense 'communion with the divine' during the soul-binding ritual are marked out for further training within the Reclusiam. Just as the chaplains guard their brethren's souls, the grand company‟s Apothecarion and Armoury protect their bodies and wargear. Despite this, it has been said that comparatively little care is given to these roles, with positions such as the crewing of vehicles being seen as dumping grounds for those who have not fulfilled their early promise as battle-psykers. However, this is not always the case, as among their ranks are brethren able to manifest psychic talents invaluable to these specialties. Such prodigies can perfectly attune themselves to their subjects, able to reach inside matter to re-knit flesh, soothe a restless machine spirit or re-forge a shattered mechanism, and are vital to the legion's continued existence. Specialist Units *'Rehati' - The Rehati is the XVth Legion's inner coven of advisors and was comprised of the most trusted confidants to Magnus the Red. The Rehati are drawn from the ranks of the elite Captains of the Thousand Sons' Fellowships to address whatever issues are currently concerning the XVth Legion. Its members are ever-changing, and inclusion within the Rehati is dependent on many things, not least of which was an Astartes' standing within the Legion. The Cults of the Thousand Sons vie for prominence and a place in the Primarch's inner circle, knowing that to bask in his radiance will only enhance their powers. As the power of the Empyrean waxes and wanes, so too does the mystical abilities of the Cults. The Rehati serve a similar position for the Thousand Sons that is comparable to the Mournival of the Luna Wolves Legion. *'Sekhmet (Scarab Occult)' - The Sekmet, also sometimes called the Scarab Occult or Magnus' Veterans, are made up of the best and brightest of the the Thousand Sons Legion and equipped with crimson-coloured Tactical Dreadnought Armour. The Sekhmet are all members of the elite First Fellowship, under the command of the First Fellowship and acting Regent. These proud and extremely devoted warriors are both combat veterans and highly-ranked members of the psychic mastery cult system of the Thousand Sons. None of the Sekhmet are below the Cult grade of Philosophus, the final Cult rank a warrior can hold before facing the Dominus Liminus. Each warrior is able to mentally transcend their physical and emotional weaknesses; achieving a form of emotional purity that results in warriors who are both fearless and willing to follow orders immediately and unquestioningly. This extraordinary level of discipline was commented on by some of the other Primarchs who witnessed the Sekhmet in action during the Great Crusade. The Great Khan of the White Scars Legion, Jaghatai Khan, commented that they were no better than automata, whilst, in a similar vein, Ferrus Manus of the Iron Hands Legion likened them to robots, though some within the Thousand Sons suspected that knowing the Iron Hands' affinity for technology, this comment may have been meant as a form of compliment. Leman Russ, the Great Wolf of the Space Wolves Legion, showed disdain for what he perceived as the Sekhmet's perceived "lack" of fighting spirit and espirit d'corps due to their taciturn natures. The Cult Arcana The Thousand Sons, like some of their fellow independent-minded Astartes Legions, employ a non-standard organisation within the XVth Legion. The pillars of the psychic mysteries of the Thousand Sons are known as the Five Fold Cults. Cults specialise in a single strand of psychic power and every psyker of manifest power within the Legion belongs to a Cult which mirrors their foremost ability. Though some Thousand Sons Astartes never develope any measurable amount of psychic ability after being implanted with the XVth Legion's gene-seed, the majority do develop some form of psychic ability just like their Primarch Magnus soon after completing the transformation process. The Legion uses five different Cults to develop and improve the abilities of the often powerful psykers found amidst this Legion's ranks. Membership within these Cults is determined regardless of the Fellowship (Chapter) to which each Astartes belongs within the Legion since Cult membership is based upon the psychic ability for which a Thousand Sons Legionary displays the most affinity. Each Fellowship of the Thousand Sons is usually made up of Legionaries coming from all five of the Cults within the XVth Legion, though it is not unheard of for a Fellowship's membership to be dominated by the members of just one of the Cults. These five Cults had been founded within the Legion by the nine original members of Magnus the Red's inner circle or cabal who were collectively known as the Rehati. The Rehati had each earned mastery in one of the five psychic disciplines recognised by the Legion and most other scholars of sorcery. Each Cult was formed to further the development of one of the recognised psychic aptitudes: the Athanaeans focused on telepathy, the Corvidae sought to develop their precognitive abilities, the Pavoni learned to make use of physiokinesis, the mental manipulation of one's own physiological processes, the Pyrae plumbed the secrets of fire, a discipline called pyrokinesis, and the Raptora mastered the potent power of telekinesis. The leader of each Cult bears the rank of Magister Templi. The leader of all the Cults is known as the Magus, and this is a rank exclusively held by the XVth Legion's Primarch, Magnus the Red. The highest rank within the Cult system is that of Ipissumus, a grade which represents a being free from limitations, who lives in balance with the corporeal and incorporeal universe. For all intents and purposes, the Ipissumus is the most perfect being in the universe. This esteemed rank is represented by the most powerful human psyker in existence -- the Emperor of Mankind. On the Thousand Sons' home world of Prospero, within the capital city of Tizca, each Cult maintains its own pyramidal headquarters, which serves as both a repository of the arcane knowledge that they have collected about their chosen psychic disciplines from across the galaxy as well as training facilities specifically geared towards enhancing psykers who displays strength in one of the five recognised psychic disciplines. Each of these pyramids' front gates is topped by the great golden icon that represents the Cult, save for the pyramid of the Pyrae Cult, which is topped by an ever-burning flame and whose gate is guarded by Canis Vertex, a Warlord-class Battle Titan of the Legio Astorum that would see action during the Burning of Prospero. To further represent the distinctiveness of the Cults' members, the Legionaries from each Cult display their Cult's insignia upon the shoulder pauldrons of their battle-plate, with the Cult's distinctive icon placed within the centre of the XVth Legion's badge. The five Cults of the Thousand Sons include the following: *'Athanaen' - The Athanaen's secrets are bound to the workings and manipulations of the mind and thought. Both subtle and powerful telepaths, they hold the Legion together in battle, channelling orders and intent seamlessly into the minds of its warriors, forming a communications network unbreakable and unparalleled in scope. Because of this, it often seems not an army of individuals but of machines driven by a single, dominating will. Out of the press of battle, many of the Cult are given to asceticism and withdrawn contemplation: a consequence of their contact with the thoughts of others, perhaps. They are often also used as emissaries to other Legions and factions of the Imperium. *'Corvidae' - The Corvidae are soothsayers and augurs who bend their abilities to touch the flow of time and consequence. Perhaps the most subtle of all the Cults, it is said by their fellows that they can read the past in a dying man's breath, and can glimpse far distant possibilities, and even manipulate the flow of one second to another by the force of their minds alone. The mark of the Corvidae is also the mark of the Legion's greatest strategists and generals, and it is no coincidence that Ahzek Ahriman, Chief Librarian of the Thousand Sons, and foremost of its leaders at the dawning the Dornian Heresy, was Magister Templi of the Corvidae. *'Pavoni' - The Pavoni concern themselves with the interaction of the ætheric and living flesh. Biomancers, they are flesh shapers and re-makers, and their initiates can channel the powers of the Warp to harden their flesh against damage, boil the blood of their enemies, and even to heal the bones and flesh of their bodies. Deeply connected to the process of life, the Pavoni are often said to hold the heart and the passion of the Legion, and in matters of doctrine, oratory and belief, their adepts often dominate. *'Pyrae' - The Pyrae's abilities express themselves in a terrifying manner - the control and creation of fire. Their thoughts can become hell-storms burning as bright as a star's fury, and their touch can reduce metal to slag in mere moments. Most bellicose of all the Cults, the Pyrae excel in destruction, and their smouldering pride beats with the heat of the Legion's martial heart. *'Raptora' - The Raptora focuses on manipulating physical reality with their will, operating psychokinesis and control of fundamental forces such as gravity. The can conjure shields of invisible energy known as 'kine-shields', crush metal with their minds, and summon storms of debris to flay their foes. Many of the Raptora are also amongst the Legion's most gifted theoreticians and scholars, noted for the coldness and cleanness of their reasoning and their logic. The Red Orders In addition to the core structures of the Legion, there are three Orders which exists both within and beyond its circumference. The Orders stand apart from the Fellowships and their Circles, and indeed the Temples of Prosperine psychic lore, their membership crossing such divides. Their purpose is not the practice and ascendancy of psychic mastery, for that is the purview of he great Cults, nor the day-to-day tactical operations of the Legion, but rather they are macro-military structures. Perhaps as much an outgrowth of the traditions and culture of the Legion as a deliberate structure, they are made to cope with the wider factors of the conducting of the Emperor's crusades, the furtherance of the Legion as a whole and its relation to the wider Imperium. *'The Order of Ruin', 'The Unmakers' - Known by the symbol of a poised serpent, the Order of Ruin is a sect of mystics said to be obsessed with numerology and the hidden structure of the universe. Calculators, logicians, analysts and organisers of supreme ability, the Order of Ruin are the siege makers, logistical specialists and planners of the Thousand Sons. When the Legion deploys its armour and ordnance to lay waste to a city or break a planet's defences, it is the formulae of the Order of Ruin which guides the number, placement and timing of shells, explosives and force. It is said that the Order of Ruin knows the strength of every warrior and war machine within the Legion, and weighs them all in calculations that only they and their Primarch understand. When a force is raised for a campaign, the Order of Ruin will be in the background assisting by arcane means in the determination of the disposition and strength of that force. The arraying and maintenance of the Legion's warships also fall under the Order's hand, as does the creation and supply of all its material. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Order of Ruin also maintains the closes contact with the Mechanicum, in particular with the isolated Forge World Zhao-Arkhad, which the Legion had liberated millennia ago and with which it had maintained many binding ties afterwards. Under its general command labours all of the Legion's forge-masters and Techmarines, many of which come directly from within this Order's ranks. *'The Order of the Jackal', 'The Measure of Life and Death' - The Order of the Jackal has a presence in every other structure and faction of the Thousand Sons, including the other Orders. The role of this small Order is twofold: to remember the dead and to raise the next generation of warriors for the Legion. The grave urns of the dead kept beneath the Whispering Tower, which houses the light of the Astronomican itself, are tended by their hands, and it is in the memories of each member of this Order that the deeds of the fallen are held. When a warrior on the edge of death is considered for the honour of internment in the iron embrace of a Dreadnought, it is the Order of the Jackal who weighs his worth and decides his fate. To them also falls the task of assessing and selecting aspirants for induction into the Legion. On Terra and many other worlds, they will walk amongst the gathered throngs of potential recruits, testing with their minds and casting divinations of their fates. In this way, the Order are the guardians of the Legion's past and future. The Legion's Apothecarion, who also are all but indivisible from the Order of the Jackal, maintains the Legion's gene-seed and are but a practical manifestation in some ways of the Order of the Jackal's wider purpose. In their role as protectors of the Legion's traditions, the Order serves another highly important ritual position as arbiters within the Legion, as their members within each of the Five Cults form the guardians of each Cult's temple; their dual allegiance and responsibility marked by their ceremonial jackal-masked helms and emblems alongside the symbols of the Cult. *'The Order of Blindness', 'The Hidden Ones' - It is only by extrapolation, and the interception of scraps of intelligence, that the wider Imperium knows of the existence of the Order of Blindness. Thought to have been headed by Magnus' Equerry, and former tutor, Amon - the so-called Hidden Ones appear to have been an Order of infiltrators, spies, interrogators and scouts deployed to gather intelligence. How the members of this Order are recruited, controlled and deployed remains unclear, though there is evidence that the use psychically conditioned non-Legiones Astartes humans are a part of their broader methodology. It is believed, that a mortal operative of the Hidden Ones infiltrates a target organisation of interest to gather intelligence while operating under a cover so deep that they never even realised that they have been psychically-reprogrammed to act as a sleeper agent for the Thousand Sons. Beyond this, their membership and purpose remains shrouded, though there is some evidence that the Order might also have been responsible for the control of certain fringe military elements within the Legion, whose purposes are less to do with stealth than the creation of chaos in a foe, such as the Thousand Sons' few Destroyer-type units, although this remains unconfirmed. Notable Sects *'Ammitara Occult Intercession Cabal' - The very existence of the sect known as the Ammitara Occult is in some cases doubted, such is the group's secrecy and shadowed reputation beyond the confines of its Legion. Even within the ranks of the Thousand Sons, it is spoken of obliquely, if acknowledged at all, as evidence collected from the wreckage of Prospero was later to attest. The Ammitara is the striking fangs of The Order of the Blindness, perhaps the most hidden and obscure division of the Thousand Sons, dedicated to misdirection, reconnaissance and some claim even espionage beyond the Legion, with the Intercession Cabals of the Ammitara specialising in another dark art of war -- assassination. The psychic talents of the Ammitara are more subtle and honed than those of the greater adepts of the Thousand Sons, and encompasse a number of forces touching on the purview of the different Cults, but with a single goal in mind -- the precise and efficient dealing of death. So it is that one Ammitara might use delicate precognition to predict where their target will be when they fire with preternatural accuracy, while another might psychokinetically accelerate a shell towards its target with shattering force, or cause a foe's blood to evacuate their wound with horrifying speed. These myriad esoteric agencies of death were manifested as a single unique psychic power -- the 'Mind Killer'. *'Khenetai Occult Blade Cabal' - The Khenetai Occult are a mystical sect within the Thousand Sons' Order of the Jackal who serve as the guardians of the Prosperine Cults as well as their reliquaries and sanctums. Bound together by oath and ritually-forged psychic bonds, each of these elite are all initiates of the Cults' inner secrets and adepts in their techniques, philosophies and arts. The foremost warriorrs of the Khenetai form cabals of 'Blades', sublimely skilled warriors who have honed their psychic powers to be at one with their sword mastery. Their dual Force Swords are shaped from single sheets of psycho-crytalline-infused ceramite and gilt, with sigils said to correspond to the wielder's secret name and the deeds they have performed. In battle they wear armour forged and shaped by the Legion's blind artificers using fire and the force of their minds alone, and fight with a unified precision that make them seem a single warrior manifested many times, rather than a group of individual fighters. Legion Home World & Recruitment The Thousand Sons' homeworld of Prospero was originally colonised by outcasts from human society, in particular by those gifted with psychic talent who wished to escape the baying mob. By the time Magnus the Red arrived on their world they had constructed a haven of enlightenment, a place where learning was pursued for the simple joy of it. The psychic gifts displayed by the population were a perfect match for Magnus' new legion, and under the primarch's aegis, psykers flocked to Prospero from across the Segmentum. New cities mirroring the beauty of the capital were constructed, and this influx of hardy, resourceful immigrants improved still further the quality of recruits available to the legion. This idyll was short-lived, though, with even the oracles of Tizca unable to foresee the global destruction the corrupted Space Wolves wrought upon the world. Despite the best efforts of the Thousand Sons the cities were blasted to rubble, its libraries burned to ash and the population brutally exterminated. After the Heresy, with Prospero nothing more than a mass-grave, the Thousand Sons felt no reason to return there. The place held too many memories and ghosts of dead friends. With Magnus labouring to modify the Astronomicon to sustain the Emperor's essence, and the Thousand Sons' invaluable psychic talents put to use in eliminating the taint of the daemonic from the very heart of the Imperium, they began to regard Holy Terra as their new home. Quietly, and with the consent of friends among the High Lords of Terra such as Lorgar and Abaddon, the legion fortified and expanded the chamber used to carry out the soul-binding ritual into their new fortress-monastery. This massive citadel is located within the citywide complex known as the City of Sight, the headquarters of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. From this imposing edifice of silver and white, the Thousand Sons select recruits from amongst those psykers brought in by the Black Ships. They are tested in any number of ways, the final one being the ritual of soul-binding. Those who survive are declared ready for training, and for the gene-seed implantation process to begin. Legion Combat Doctrine As has always been Magnus' intent, the Thousand Sons use their psychic talents to the full on the battlefield. As well as wielding powers that make them formidable opponents, the legion's commanding officers use their prodigious talents to guide and coordinate the movement of their squads and those of their allies. Never a numerous legion, they rely heavily upon the Imperial Army, as well as on guidance from the Emperor‟s Tarot to strike at the most auspicious time and place. Though this sometimes strikes their allies as intransigence, once committed they are able to turn the tide of any battle. Individual squads are led by sergeants who are powerful battle-psykers in their own right. It is their responsibility to coordinate and focus the less mature abilities of those in their charge. Despite the intensive training they receive to do this, it is an exceptional talent who can effectively direct more than five or six of his brethren. In this way, each squad is able to employ psychic powers to complement their battlefield role. Such is their unity that each feels the other‟s pain. A wound suffered by one, let alone a death, is felt across the mental link by all, and the loss of the sergeant can leave the squad stunned and without focus. Tactical and Devastator squads are able to telekinetically guide their shots to hit weak points in an enemy's armour, or to strike down those who believe themselves safely behind cover. Units specialising in close combat use their skills to blot themselves from their opponent's sight, allowing them to approach undetected. The most skilled of veterans can even use their powers to read what an opponent will do even as they think it, an advantage they use to the full in the brutal mêlée of the battlefield. By the time a brother has earned the right to wear Terminator armour his skills are all-but mature. At this stage they are able to channel their psychic might through the crystalline matrix of a force weapon, and the long, arduous training to lead a squad of their own can begin. Legion Beliefs The Thousand Sons believe that the only way humanity as a species can ultimately defeat the Ruinous Powers is for it to gain sufficient psychic strength and fortitude to resist its predations. This brings with it a great dilemma as their very existence, and that of the Emperor, relies upon the Black Ships which bring in a constant harvest of psykers from across the Imperium. How, they ask, can humanity increase its psychic potential when psykers live in fear of the howling mob, and while the finest talents are constantly being removed from the gene-pool? To this end the Legion yearns to reconstitute the original dream of Prospero by creating isolated havens for those with psychic talent. Whenever this has been tried over the millennia it has ended in disaster, either through massed daemonic incursion or resentment from neighbouring cities at the extensive and preferential protection offered by the Thousand Sons to these settlements in times of war. Their staunchest critics leap upon such plans as evidence that the Thousand Sons are intent on the forcible replacement of humanity with those of the 'mutant psyker strain'. There are some amongst the legion who whisper that in the face of such hatred perhaps this would be a good thing. They are, however, in a very small minority, and the legion continues to fight as loyally for the Imperium as it has since the day that Magnus first knelt in fealty to the Emperor. Legion Gene-Seed In the early years of the legion's history there were severe problems with spontaneous mutations, both of the body and among their gene-seed implants. This was known as the 'Flesh-Change'. With the advent of the soul-binding the incidences of this dramatically reduced. This communion with the Emperor has been described as alleviating the innate mutability of the Magnus' gene-seed, although at the time critics claimed it had more to do with the legion being forced to forego the corrupting influence of sorcery. Despite this, the Thousand Sons still suffer more from spontaneous mutation than any other loyalist legion. Although the use of bionic limbs to replace ones lost in combat is common among the Emperor's Astartes, for the Thousand Sons the cause is more likely to be due to the effects of progressive mutation. This instability also extends to the Magnus gene-seed. While it continues to enhance the psychic talent of the recipient, its inherent mutability shows a noticeable decline in implant efficiency within a bare handful of generations. Although this has been remedied by the frequent infusion of fresh gene-stock derived directly from their primarch, this dependence is yet another cause for concern over Magnus' frequent and lengthy disappearances. Even beyond their anxiety over the risk of losing their primogenitor, the Thousand Sons realise that his death would also be the harbinger of their own extinction. Legion Fleet *''Photep'' (Gloriana-class Battleship) - The Photep serves as both the Primarch Magnus the Red's and the XVth Legion's flagshig. *Ankhtowe (Battle Barge)' *Kymmeru'' (Battle Barge) *''Scion of Prospero'' (Battle Barge) *''Sekhemra'' (Battle Barge) *''Sycorax'' (Battle Barge) *''Geometric'' (Destroyer) *''Herumon'' (Unknown Class) *''Phosis T'Kar'' (Planet Scourer, Unique Class) *''Waning Moon'' (Strike Cruiser) Legion Appearance Legion Colours The pre-Prosperine panoply of the original XVth Legion cannot be more in contrast to that which it was later to take on, its colouration and armourials echoing that of both the Achaemenid Empire and the Noe'hion "Witch-Mark" of Old Terra centered above a lapis-blue coloured "M". The "M" most likely represented the ancient Romanii numeral that stands for the numeral for one-thousand, which is the source of the Legion's name. This also was reflected by the number of Magnus' gene-sons who survived the horrible "Flesh Change" when they finally reunited with their Primarch on the world of Prospero. Others were eventually recruited during the course of the Great Crusade, swelling the ranks of the Thousands Sons well beyond their eponymous number. Space Marine Legions were usually comprised at a minimum of ten thousand active Astartes. Like many of their contemporaries whose numbers grow over the centuries of the Great Crusade, the Thousand Sons were no different, eventually swelling to 80,000-90,000 Astartes at the height of the Imperium's expansion before the Horus Heresy. Legion Badge Just before the Dornian Heresy began, the XVth Legion was altered into a solar glyph, which would would become the Thousand Sons' official armourial icon. Trivia This article was originally authored by Aurelius Rex over on the Bolter & Chainsword forums. All rights are reserved to him. Gallery TS Shai-Captain.png|A Thousand Sons Shai-Captain of the Fifth Fellowship, Magister Templi of the Pyrae Cult TS Sekhmet Termi.png|A Thousand Sons elite Scarab Occult (Sekhmet) Terminator of the 1st Fellowship arrayed in relic Cataphractii Terminator Armour. Category:T Category:Imperium Category:Loyalists Category:Space Marine Legions Category:Space Marines